MET IN A THEATRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

MET IN A THEATRE.

RICH MAN'S HASTY MARRIAGE. ' IMMEDIATE SEPARATION. 'A chan'Cß meeting, a confession, a hasty marriage, separations, and extraordinary letters— were somrc of the things that went to make up an extraordinary story told in the London Divorce Court recently Mrs. Emma Gordon sought a restitution of conjugal rights against her husband, Mr. Charles Edward Grant Gordon, a gentleman of wealth. Mr. Gcrdon, in a cross-suit, claimed a divorce from his wife, who denied his allegations. Mr. Marshall Hail, opening the case for the husband, said that Mr. Gordon met the lady, whose name was Phillips, by accident, in a. West liid lounge. She told him frankly what her past life had been; that she had an income of £250 a year; and that alio had the care of a child, who was not the child of the gentleman she had been living with. Within a few clays of this first meeting they were married. But almost immediately after the marriage they separated from i.:ne to time. "In fact," said counsel, " their married life had been one long separation, interrupted by occasional intervals of cohabitation." In 1907 the wife went abroad, and from Geneva she wrote: — " I am sorry you are lonely and thinking of coming out here. I do not think you ought. I am quite well in spito of being away from your tender care. ... I enclose my "photo. I look rather happy for a grass widow : but then I am always happy -ben 1 am away from your grumbling." In another letter she apologised, and added: "But you raised the devil in me, and Unit is the reason you had such a nasty letter." The husband wrote to tow-.— I '• Mr Own Darling,— know 1 love youOld girl, do be nice to me. Don't play the fool with mo. 1/ you don't want me. 1 stick the knife right in and have done] ■with it. 1 am willing to fight and die io» you, fcnt I cannot stand slow torture. . . . | If you .rant to chuck me, you know I shall go in for revenge." In 1908 Mr. Gordon took a place for faceting. The wife did not accompany bim there, and he wrote to her stating chat he could not comply with her request to allow her more than £600 for dress ; money, and ho added: — "lam beginning to feel very much like a bachelor again. Sometimes I wonder J. I am really married or whether it is one's imagination" Disgusted at Extravagance. She wrote addressing him as "My darling boy," and stating that she would join him if he would get her a couple of horses. There was always, said counsel, a price to be paid for everything she did. Later, Mr. Gordon received a letter from his wife in which she said: — "Dear Charlie,l send tho enclosed, which came for you this morning. To say I am disgusted at your saltish extravagance is to put it too mildly. How you dare spend £500—a fourth of your income— a few months' shooting passes my under stand;-?. What explanation can you offer k'T such, astounding squander—£soo for a " shoot" and £500 to keep up the place, and £1000 for a motor-car, of which I have never had the use? Yet you are the one to talk of the marriage service ' with all my worldly goods I thee endow.' lam not coming up for Christmas. I am not going to pay any more household bills, and I am going to have my legal share of your income." In another letter the wife said : — "A small cheque for my present is not much. A thirty-guinea dressing-bag was premised, but I suppose your.own extravagances do no 4 permit of a big outlay on you/ wife." The wife wrote what counsel termed several cynical letters to her husband, such as: — " If you decide to go to the devil, please do it thoroughly, so that I can divorce you. It would bo such a nasty shock to the old Gordon name to be dragged into the courts for all the world to jeer at. At the Hydro. In 1912 she went to reside at Maidenhead, and eventually the full separation took place. Mr. Gordon said he had served in the Boer War. He first met his wife at the Empire in Lonodn. The co-respondent, Luce, said Mr. Gordon was nineteen or ttt jnty years of age. ttle did not believe that his wife had any affection for him; it was only money she wanted. Beatrice Hallett, who had been chamber maid at a hydro at Burgißss Hill, said that in May last Mrs. Gordon and Mr. Luce were staying there for a week. On two occasions witness had found Mrs. Gordon's hedroom door locked in the morning, and an hour afterwards had seen Mr. Luce leave. Mrs. Hallett admitted on Thursday that she was not sure of this, tut said Mrs. Gordon shouted down from floor to the co-respondent on the floor-#elow: "Are you ready, dearie?" Mr. Luce on the same owsdon called! out to Mi's. Gordon: " Are you coming out, lovey?" Until the lady detective had a conversation with her ehe_ never thought there was anything sus picioua about the conduct of Mrs. Gordon and the co-respondent. Mrs. Gordon, a slight woman with grey hair, denied the allegations. Mr. Luce, she fciid, did not call her "dear" or darling," or " lovey." He addressed her es "Mrs. ft." and later on as "Cissie.'' The hearing was adjourned.